May 26, 2014
May is a very busy month in Indianapolis. And most of the buzz is all about racing. The month starts with the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini Marathon and ends with the Indianapolis 500.
From the website: The Indianapolis 500 is the world’s most famous and prestigious auto race. It has taken place annually since 1911 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway except for 1917-18 and 1942-45 during America’s participation in world wars. The “500” is the world’s largest single-day spectator sporting event.
People from all over the world come to this race. For many it is a week-long party. They stay in hotels, they rent homes and some camp on the Coke Lot. The Coke Lot sits north of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company building in Speedway, Indiana and is a huge grassy field owned by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. People camp in very nice RVs, some pitch tents, some even just sleep in their vehicles. It is a huge party the night before the race – and the day after the race, it looks like a landfill!
I volunteered with an organization as part of their fund raising effort to clean-up this pigsty. Oh my, I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into.
We needed to arrive at 7:00AM and we were scheduled until 1:30PM but if we had enough volunteers, it was possible that we could get done sooner. Oh my gosh, do some of these people have no respect or manners. I couldn’t believe what I saw. TRASH EVERYWHERE! And I couldn’t believe how many people were still there.
So I signed my waiver, got my instructions and black 50 gallon trash bag and got to work. I didn’t know anyone else before the day started but got to meet some great people as the day progressed. We all had a common goal – to help raise money for this amazing organization.
As you will see below, I took some pictures but here is a brief recap of things I found throughout the day:
- one boot. the sole of a shoe and an actual PAIR of shoes
- one pair of men’s boxers
- both sleeves that had been ripped off a flannel shirt – these were found in separate locations
- one condom wrapper – unopened, one condom wrapper – empty, two condoms – used (I’m assuming didn’t look that closely!)
- a golf putter
- a toilet seat lid – not the seat, just the lid
- two lawn chairs
- an unopened deck of cards
- cups, empty beers bottles and cans, empty hard liquor bottles and water bottles – both empty & full
- and so much food, you can’t even imagine; bacon, hamburgers, hotdogs, brats, pulled pork, coleslaw, baked beans, eggs, bread, buns, chips and candy…just to name a few things.
Back to the day – so shortly after arriving I noticed this comfy seating area for the “restroom” so I hurried over to take a picture. It wasn’t until I posted this on Facebook that people pointed out that on the beige-ish couch in the foreground, there appears to be someone sleeping!
This is a small sample of the ridiculousness that people left behind:
I must say that I’ve never seen cucumbers and strawberries together..and soaked in something red:
From the list above:
And we found this sign. Wonder how many arguments took place over this:
I guess its not a party until the potty gets tipped over:
And then there were these fools. Maybe they thought they were “helping” by just burning all of their stuff. That way no one had to pick it up and throw it away.
And someone had some fun “muddin” out there too:
It was a long hot disgusting day and I don’t even know how many trash bags I filled. I listened to my shuffle to help pass the time when I wasn’t working along side someone and getting to know them.
I’m pleased to say that we finished within the set time frame and passed the inspection. We left our area looking like this:
I plan on helping this organization again after the Brickyard 400 in July. I’m told it isn’t nearly as bad after that race. I can’t imagine how it cold be.
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